1. Technical Field
The invention relates to methods for protecting goods from counterfeit, i.e., to methods for identifying a counterfeit, and can be used by manufacturers for protecting goods manufactured by them and also for protecting consumers from purchasing goods manufactured by illegal manufacturers (counterfeit goods).
2. Background of the Related Art
At present, methods are known for protecting the authenticity of articles from counterfeit. A method for identifying a counterfeit (RU patent No. 2202127 C2) has the technical result of increasing the level of protection from imitation of a product with the aid of the use of an internal random structural pattern of a carrier material as an identified tag. The proposed invention recommends selecting a material with a distinct random structure design as a label and selecting a random structural design of the label as information for identification, which is read by a scanner and then stored in the database of a computer identification system. Consumers can receive corresponding information relating to the structural pattern by telephone, by fax or over the Internet, confirming the authenticity or counterfeit nature of a product.
The disadvantages of this method are as follows: (1) the difficulty and impossibility of simplifying the process for verifying the identification of a counterfeit; and (2) the low level of accuracy and unreliability of results of the comparison procedure.
The method for protecting goods from counterfeit (RU patent No. 2285954 C1) is characterized by the fact that the authenticity of goods is established by comparing a digitized image of an identifier with which the goods are provided and which is in the form of a three-dimensional physical body which comprises randomly distributed optically visible elements with a digitized image of an identifier stored in an electronic database.
A dedicated feature, for example a registration number which is used to determine precisely which digital image from the plurality of digital images stored in the electronic database needs to be compared with the digital image of the identifier being verified, is assigned to each identifier.
The authenticity of the goods is established with the involvement of a specialized organization which verifies the rights of the manufacturer and confirms the authenticity of the information presented to the consumer.
The digital image of the identifier which is used for the comparison with the image stored in the database is obtained with the aid of a device in which the functions of the acquisition of a digital image and the reception/transmission of data remotely are combined, wherein the device is a mobile telephone with a built-in digital camera.
The disadvantages of this method are as follows: (1) the comparatively low level of reliability of the results of the comparison procedure since, if a digitized code on an identifier is copied and an image of the original identifier is attached, the verification will confirm that the digitized code is present in the database and that the image of the identifier corresponds to the original; (2) the difficulty involved in the processing and maintenance of the database of scanned copies of samples which over time, will increase constantly; (3) the impossibility of verifying the goods when there is no connection to the database.